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Before Sam Swart played against Stanford last week in field hockey, she asked her mother, Mary, to bring up her lacrosse sticks and lacrosse balls to the game.

While Swart has played 13 field hockey games, she’ll join the U.S. women’s national lacrosse team too. On Oct. 15, Swart will take part in the Fall Classic, where the Americans will face defending NCAA champion North Carolina. A day earlier, she’ll play against the Tar Heels in field hockey. 

Swart is used to balancing sports. She played three — field hockey, basketball and lacrosse — throughout the school year at Archbishop Carroll High School (Pennsylvania). Despite latching on to Syracuse lacrosse in eighth grade, she always wanted to play field hockey in college. After a five-year All-American lacrosse career, Swart is playing for SU’s field hockey team in her final year. 

When Swart arrived in Syracuse, she had the impression that she could play for then-head lacrosse coach Gary Gait and for head field hockey coach Ange Bradley, who coached Swart for USA’s U19 national team. But when Swart started practicing with the lacrosse team in the fall, she feared she wouldn’t start in the spring. Swart stuck to lacrosse, taking part in fall ball. She made nine starts freshman year, scoring 36 times.  

Swart never forgot about playing for the field hockey team, and neither did Bradley. In the 2019-20 season, Bradley talked to then-junior Swart about playing senior year. But with COVID-19 giving Swart an extra year of eligibility, Bradley told her to continue lacrosse. 

While Swart earned All-American honors in 2021 and finished with 185 career points, she always told her SU teammates about her intention to play field hockey. Meaghan Tyrrell said in practice, Swart used her lacrosse stick like a field hockey stick.

“She’d always be like, ‘Yeah, I’m playing field hockey next year. Yeah, I’m playing field hockey next year.’ We’re like, ‘OK Sam, whatever,’” Tyrrell said. “And then it actually happened and she was being really serious about it.”

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Initially, Swart didn’t want to play field hockey or lacrosse. Before first grade, Swart wanted to follow her older sister, Gabrielle, and become a gymnast. Since Gabrielle trained at a national center in Texas, Swart made that her dream. But one day Swart told her mother that she wanted to change course.

“She didn’t want to have people demand her life and make her do things every day, repetitively, over and over and over again,” Mary said. “And I said, ‘Why don’t you try field hockey and lacrosse?’ and she did.”

Mary said the constant movement in both sports appealed to the “free-spirited” Swart. Once she started both sports at Archbishop Carroll, Swart showed her ability to become a “big ball of energy,” said Lorraine Beers, her former lacrosse coach.

Christina Elisio, who was Swart’s field coach at Archbishop Caroll, equated Swart to the Energizer Bunny. Swart played the entire 60 minutes as a midfielder, and never seemed tired. Before lacrosse practices, Beers noticed how Swart drank a Mountain Dew among other snacks.

“If she could get a big burger or anything like that, she’d have all kinds of candy, the worst diet in the world, and just kind of inhale it in front of everybody,” Beers said. “(Other players) couldn’t do that because then they’ll get sick after the run. But Sammy could.”

At SU, Megan Carney and Tyrrell were amazed and confused that Swart could eat a Starbucks brownie or a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich and then run for miles. Similarly in field hockey, Swart went the full 60 minutes without ever having to come out.

While Swart’s stick skill improved at SU, Beers said that Swart’s natural left-handedness helped her blow by a lot of high school defenders.

Beers said Swart’s vision and speed only got better after she went to Syracuse. Carney and Tyrrell noted how she was the fastest player on the team while also bringing a lively energy to practices.

After confirmation from the NCAA Compliance Office, Swart had the chance to play field hockey at SU, and announced the news on Instagram in June. The field hockey team received confirmation of Swart’s opportunity and Quirine Comans described it as an “honor” because of Swart’s history with SU. 

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After Syracuse women’s lacrosse lost Swart’s final game to Northwestern in the NCAA quarterfinals, Tyrrell and Carney were sad Swart wouldn’t be on the team anymore. But they still see Swart constantly. Even this week, Tyrrell saw Swart looking for stick tape.

“At the end of my lacrosse season, that was when I just was like, ‘I’m not done here at Syracuse,’” Swart said.

During field hockey games, Comans will see Swart’s enthusiasm on the bench. Comans said one of Swart’s biggest strengths as a field hockey midfielder is that she can put pressure on the ball and the opposing goalie. Bradley said Swart will create off-ball movement and “havoc” when opponents generate defensive pressure.

Swart will block out the goalie in the circle so she can create spaces for shots, an ability Comans and her teammates said came from lacrosse. Mary said Division I lacrosse created more endurance and arm strength for Swart.

In the Orange’s game against Vermont, Swart applied this box-out play to add to their lead. During an offensive transition, Joy Haarman rifled a shot from outside the circle that Comans deflected. The ball passed the Catamounts’ keeper, who quickly turned to get a glove on it.

But Swart reached the ball first, colliding with the keeper. Swart fell to the turf only after she sent a pass parallel to the goal line for Suus Heijnekamp to score Syracuse’s fourth goal.

Published on October 13, 2022 at 12:28 am

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